Johnson ‘Gryffinn’ Le, one of North America’s most exciting LoL prospects, has joined T1’s youth setup and will play in the LCK giants’ academy.
According to LoL content creator Nick ‘LS’ De Cesare, Gryffinn has joined T1’s academy roster after trying out for several LCK organizations over the summer.
Gryffinn, who turned 17 only last month, arrived in South Korea on June 21 and immediately attracted attention from a number of LCK teams despite not speaking Korean at all and communicating with other players via pings, basic English, and words that are used in all regions.
The news comes just three weeks after LS revealed that the young jungler had managed to sign with an LCK organization. In an emotional video posted to his YouTube channel, LS described it as “one of the happiest moments” of his esports career.
In case people didn't see the tweet from Eevee, the LCK team @GryffinnLoL has joined is T1 and he's currently on their academy team. Tryouts went throughout summer and ended in September. Fun stories for another time. pic.twitter.com/Gt7p7kOnaJ
— H. Baker (@LSXYZ9) October 9, 2023
“I feel like this is going to be the first time we might have a non-Korean player that can legitimately climb up the ranks and make it into LCK,” LS said.
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Gryffinn burst onto North America’s tier-two scene in 2022, when he helped NoTeam to reach LCS Proving Grounds Spring. In March 2023, he joined CCG Esports as a substitute player but didn’t see any action for the team and ended up leaving in May.
That same month, he claimed rank one in the North American Challenger with 1,852 League Points (LP). “All games on stream and going to school full-time,” he pointed out.
A move to T1’s academy program could offer Gryffinn a pathway to Challengers and, eventually, the LCK. In July, Yoon ‘Poby’ Seong-won filled in for Lee ‘Faker’ Sang-hyeok in the LCK while the three-time Worlds winner recovered from a wrist injury. The 17-year-old mid laner had been promoted from T1’s academy squad to the Challengers roster just two months earlier.